[Eldanuumea]

Every time I buy a book, hubby says with a sarcastic smirk, "So is that the twentieth in a series of thirty?" Or some such thing.

Does anyone else have spouses/partners who complain about the number of books you buy, specifically books in series?

[KatG]

No, mine buys more books than I do -- he has less of a guilt factor. He doesn't read as much fantasy as I do -- he's more into mysteries where thirty books in a series is not unusual -- but don't get between him and Harry Potter.

Next time your husband complains, Eld, just point out that you could instead be buying self-help books and making him answer the quizzes in them with you. :)

[Raule]

My husband doesn't complain about me buying books, but he does look at me (or so I imagine) as though he wishes I'd be doing something other than sitting on my butt reading a book. Between hubby, co-workers and children, I doubt I can read for more than 10 minutes without someone interrupting me, and after awhile that gets annoying. I treat DH's hobbies with a degree of respect by giving him the time and space to actually do them without the constant invasion; sometimes I feel I don't get reciprocation.

[sic's mom]

For as long as I can remember someone has complained about my books. First my dad and then my ex-husband. He was in the military, so we moved a lot and had to move my books. I can say they have been all over the world. Won't go anywhere without them. But there are times I complain too. Mostly because I don't have any room to put all the news ones that I buy:)

[AuntiePam]

My first husband did. He thought reading fiction was a waste of time. He gradually stopped complaining though, maybe because I used "my" money to buy books. When we made a cross-country move he didn't say a word about paying to ship about 30 boxes of books.

Current husband is sorta proud. When people visit and comment on all the books, he says stuff like "Oh yeah, she's a big reader" and then he hauls out the limited of The Stand and says "This one's worth a thousand bucks!" :) He's so cute.

I make a point of not ignoring my husband in order to read. I think that helps. When the kids were small, I'd usually wait for them to go to bed before picking up a book.

[Alex]

Yay! I'm the first male to respond in this thread! I have to say that my wife thinks I spend way to much time reading. She thinks that all fantasy is about dragons (despite everything I've tried to tell her) and young farmboys and hence consider fantasy books to be childish and something adults should stay away from.

I always get jiibes like "Hey hun, there's a book with a big dragon on it. Have you read that one yet?"

My wife's the type of reader who reads books to have read them. The only reason she puts up with my fantasy reading is because I've already read Dickens, Shakespear, Tolstoy and Dostojievsky (etc).

She's become alot nicer and understanding lately but this has probably something to do with my ingenous plan of making her start "The Terror" by Dan Simmons. She's loving the book but since she's a slow reader it will take her atleast 2 months to get through that monster of a book=)

Although "The Terror" isn't strictly fantasy it's still a start. After she's read that one I'll be starting her on Jaqueline Carey's Kushiel series since she loves to read about strong female protagnists, complicated emotional conflicts and ofcourse...... sex.

On a sidenote, do you ladies think that getting her started on fantasy by reading the Kushiel series is the way to go? She's 27 and the only fantasy books she has read are Lian Hearn's Otori books.

[JHerzog01]

It took my girlfriend a little while to come around. She was always supportive but didn't really have any interest untill I found her Shanna Swenson's novels. "Sex in the city meets camelot" Ever since she has been a little reading machine. In fact it kind of worked too well. Barely a week goes by that she doesn't mention how we should "read our books together and discuss how we feel after very chapter". I have managed to stall it so far (only by reading GRR martins ASoIaF and showing her how very long the books are but she's not giving up)

[PeterWilliam]

Yeah, I catch flak from my wife concerning all the books. My wife is an executive chef and avid gardener, thus she sees reading as something that is only done occasionally. She sees reading the kind of things I read (fantasy fiction and a little scifi) as a total waste of time. We agree to disagree. She knows I've been attempting to compose all of the loose ends of a story for years and keeps pushing (nagging maybe?) to see it come to fruition. I don't need her to like it, but if she doesn't, I'd kind of prefer that she leave me alone about it.

[Seak]

Definitely. My wife won't even let me buy books unless I find some random way to get them for either very cheap or free. Lucky thing for e-Rewards. I can at least get 15 bucks for Borders once a year.:o

She also makes fun of me sometimes for my fantasy books, but she loves fiction and mysteries so at least we can read together. As long as she has a good book to read, then I can read too. Right now she's on the Historian.

[manephelien]

I'm lucky, my fiance (soon to be hubby) reads at least as much fantasy as I do. I got him reading Hobb, he got me reading Pratchett. I used to date a guy who didn't read fiction, but it didn't last very long. Not because he didn't enjoy reading, but because he thought I was stupid because I did. I don't ask my fiance to like everything I like, but I do expect him to respect my right to like what I like. And the reverse obviously also holds true.